Give It to Me Baby

Recorded during the Street Songs sessions in December 1980 and January 1981 at Hitsville U.S.A. Recording Studios in Hollywood and The Record Plant in Sausalito. It was produced by Rick James with Art Stewart for the original Gordy single release. Released as the lead single from Street Songs, it became Rick James’s second No. 1 on the R&B chart and a major crossover club record in 1981. On the Billboard Hot 100 it peaked at No. 40, while in the UK it made a brief chart appearance. The track remains one of Rick James’s signature songs and a staple of early-1980s funk and R&B radio. Its groove and vocal hook helped cement the Street Songs era as one of the defining periods of Rick James’s career, and it continues to circulate through later sampling, covers, and compilation use.